I moved home, from London to Australia in September 2018 and my health was poor to say the least. I did not have anything specific that I knew of, I was just exhausted, in pain and constantly getting sick. I had a 10-month-old and a 4-year-old and I had not slept in almost 5-years. After several visits to different Doctors with many scans and blood tests, I still did not have a formal diagnosis. My Thyroid and Liver were not functioning well and I had large painful breast cysts. The cysts were drained, I was tested for all kinds of cancer and I was left feeling even more miserable. My requests for prescription strength pain killers and sleeping tablets was met with disdain from my GP. However, I refused a prescription for anti-depressants after googling the side-affects.
One day I took my daughter to a Salt Room Therapy. In this room I read some well-being magazines. I had not read any well-being or glossy magazines in years. A few articles in these magazines sparked some ideas and I decided to start implementing a few stress reduction techniques to help me sleep. I also decided to start exercising and educate myself more about nutrition. I discovered a Parkrun group on a Saturday morning near my home, and I turned up one morning at 7:00 am after 3 hours of sleep, with a cup of coffee in my hand, declaring to anyone near me that I was ‘just walking’. If I had to carry a cup of coffee than there was no pressure for me to perform.
It’s true that overweight, exhausted people with sciatica, plantar fasciitis and weak knees don’t like Jogging – why would you? Seriously if you want me to jog, I might want to hurt you! I understand and I know that jogging when you have one, any, or all of these, is just not on your list of To Do’s.
It’s funny and not funny because I studied Exercise Science and Sports Management, competed at three World Championships and still hold a record for running at my school since 1988. I gave up exercise in my late 20’s after my last World Championships and focused on my career. My career has taken me to amazing places, but I spent a lot of time on my butt. I’m not ashamed to say that as my bank account and credit card limit got bigger in my 30’s my butt did as well and while I think big butts look OK on some people, on reflection now I can see how the neglect of my health and well-being started when I gave up exercise and became sedentary.
Modern life is just so darn sedentary…. We sleep, we sit, we drive, we sit, we sleep and sometimes if we need to, we move slowly around throughout the day or, we rush from one sitting place to the next…
Here are the top 10 exercise benefits for your mind, body and spirit:
- Exercise increases your energy levels.
- Exercise reduces your risk of chronic disease.
- Exercise lowers your biological age.
- Exercise makes you feel happier and improves your mood.
- Exercise helps you lose weight and maintain a healthy BMI.
- Exercise improves circulation which helps your brain health and memory.
- Exercise helps build and maintain strong bones and muscles.
- Exercise helps us sleep better.
- Exercise helps reduce pain and aids with pain management.
- Exercise improves hair and skin by improving surface blood circulation and taking away cell debris.
My old life involved sleeping as much as I could, working long hours, eating and drinking too much and staring at a computer. These days as a working mum to two small kids, I sleep very little, I work longer hours and often I stare at a computer, BUT in between all of that; I move, I stretch, I walk, I jog, I swim, I dance, I remind myself that I want my body and mind to be healthy.
When I started going to Parkrun more than 2-years ago, my goal was just to drag my weary, aching, overweight, sleep-deprived butt out of bed and turn up. Great goal! After a few weeks of walking 5kms with my coffee cup, I decided to try to jog a bit. It hurt… but I kept going. After a few months I decided if I could run the whole 5kms without stopping that would be a good achievement – and I did it! At the end of 2019 I decided to try run a sub-27minute PB (personal best). I smashed it! By the way, noticeably all my health conditions also had left my body, those years of neglect; aches, pains and toxins had melted away in only 9-months.
The other things I implemented for my health and well-being are:
- Stress Management: Mindfulness and Meditation Practice and Breathing exercises.
- Sleep: I prioritise sleep over TV or socialising and I have my own bed-time routine.
- Food: I ensure that I eat ‘the rainbow’ and focus on nutrient dense food over processed food.
- Stretching: I stretch daily. 20 minutes before bed, as well as before and after exercise.
- Listening to my body: my body is an intuitive machine that is constantly sending me messages. I listen to it, I thank it, I care for it, and I move it so that all the toxins that build up have the best chance of being removed.
Here is my advice to anyone; we can all do little things and big things to improve our health. The first goal should always be – Just Turn Up! The rest will follow. When I decided to ‘Get Healthy and Stay Healthy!’ I made a commitment to myself that I would not negotiate with my family anymore about Mum needing to go for a walk by herself… I just put on my shoes and left the house without a long goodbye or explanation of how long I would be. I had to get tough with my family after I found myself begging for 20 minutes to go for a walk, 10 minutes to have a shower and prevent everyone melting down around me. I see now, how crappy it was to be in that position and whether I had created if for myself or not, I was the only one that could change it. I had to teach my family that Mum needed to take care of herself and that my well-being was non-negotiable.
It took about 6 months to be honest enough to teach my family that my need to be healthy was not a cause for their alarm as I left Daddy to manage 2 kids for 30- 60mins at a time. Everyone is very proud of Mummy now for the losses and gains I have made in the past few years. I’ve lost 20kgs, regained my health and gained some pretty fast times in my running, but those things were not my motivator. My motivator was to build new cells, to stop being in pain and to not continue on a path to self-destruction, accepting that all my aches and pains were somehow not my fault.
I have to be accountable for my physical health. I had to re-learn that movement was necessary and could be fun instead of dreading it. I had to change my mind about the fact that a tired, sore old body was not capable of jogging. I have decided that my body wants to move, to be nourished with fresh air, sunshine and activity and that I want to be the mum that is running up and down the side-lines.
My exercise habits now are very flexible to my schedule and that of my two children. I’ve learned some ways that I can fit my fun in around theirs and I detest being sedentary for too long as I know it makes me sick. So how do I do it?
When my child has swimming lessons, I swim laps.
When my child has gymnastics, I jog in the park.
I stretch every night before bed.
I sometimes jog in the morning.
I sometimes jog at lunch time.
I sometimes jog in the evening.
I go to Parkrun on Saturday morning.
I sometimes cycle to school with the kids.
Deciding that your health is ‘non-negotiable’ is the best thing you can do for yourself and your family! Everyone will benefit when you are around to laugh, play and take care of them.
My wish is for everyone to be healthy. Physical health supports mental health, mental health supports emotional health and all support our spiritual health.
Krissy Regan
Krissy Regan is the Founder of Mindful Mums Queensland and the author of 4 new books. Krissy creates books, blogs, poems and programs that focus on well-being.
